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Thin Air Extravaganza
Day 2
Chevy Trucks National Championship Series #1 Short Track - Big Bear Lake, California by Chrissy Redden |
NORBA #1 Short Track
Day 2 of the Chevy Trucks National Championship Series continued with the Short Track men's and women's races. This race was 20 minutes of all out exertion around a rolling 1km track looping around the main finish area.
The Women's Race:
After yesterday's domination of the Cross-Country, Mary and I went through some
team strategies and wanted to use our team experience and dominate the race.
Our plan was to continually launch attacks until one of us got away, and the
other was to stay in the main group and get 2nd. Our plan was working perfectly
half way through the race with myself with a 10 second gap and Mary staying
in the group. The only glitch in the plan was how strong Ann Trombley (Koolias
Zaard) was riding. Once we were all together again (the three of us), Ann launch
a very strong attack, which I was unable to contest. Mary though would have
nothing to do with letting Ann get away and counter-attacked to take the lead
and 2 laps latter win the race with a smile! I was strong enough to hold onto
a strong 3rd place.
The Results:
1st Mary Grigson Gary Fisher/Saab
2nd Ann Trombley Koulias Zaard
3rd Chrissy Redden Gary Fisher/Saab
4th Jimenia Florit RLX Polo Sport
5th Melanie Dorian Ford Devinci
The Men's Race:
In a new partnership with my teammate Chrissy Redden, I (Andy Bishop) will be
handling the men's side of the race reports. Morale started off at a high point
after the women performed so well, but as Ryder Hesjedal mentioned to Pavel
Tcherkassov , "We can't let the women get all the glory." Sure enough, that
motivation led to an awesome performance by the men in the short track. The
race started out fast and I had the pleasure of riding with a helmet camera
and pack from Outdoor Life Network, who came on to cover the entire 2000 NORBA
NCS Race Series--check out their coverage!! Ryder immediately took the hole-shot
and led the race for the first lap as the racers all settled into the blistering
pace. In typical fashion, there were many lead changes throughout the race and
GT rider Greg Randolph took the lead (which he impressively held onto until
the end) However, there was terrific racing still left as Pavel started to come
on strong. A group of four riders formed a chase group, including Ryder and
Pavel. They worked together for a few laps until Pavel and Cannondale rider
Kashi Leuchs broke free for the last few laps. Pavel handily won the sprint
to the finish for 2nd place and Ryder finished fifth.
1st Greg Randolph GT
2nd Pavel Tcherkassov Gary Fisher/Saab
3rd Kashi Leuchs Volvo Cannondale
4th Geoff Kabush Kona
5th Ryder Hesjedal Gary Fisher/Saab